I spoke at a cycling camp
offered by Aspen Sports Performance this past weekend in Moab, Utah. The riding was
spectacular and the athletes were all quite impressive, especially given that
it was the “off season” (whatever that means) for most of them.
On Saturday during a break
in the ride at Arches
National Park
(what a beautiful place to ride!) I talked briefly about the purposes and
methodologies of training. This prompted one of the riders to ask if he should
be “serious” about training year round. I don’t think I’ve ever been asked that
exact question before, but a lot of athletes have implied it. Here’s what I
told him.
How serious you are, which
I take to mean how focused you are on training to improve race performance,
depends on a couple of things. The first is how challenging your race goal is. It’s
okay to take a long break and have a low-key season occasionally in which you
do races—if any—just to have fun. If they’re only social outings and you don’t
care about the outcomes then there is no reason to be serious with training. In
fact, it may not be “training” at all as that implies having a focus on
outcome. Instead, all you need is an exercise program. Do what you want, when
you want. Totally non-serious.
For seasons in which you
are focused on achieving high goals, your level of seriousness can depend on
periodization. This following table provides a rough guide as to how serious
you might be during each period (see my Training Bible books or search this
blog for more details on periodization). In this table, “serious” means, to me,
doing workouts that are laser-focused on performance. Not every workout in each
period needs to be that way. In any given period some may be 100% focused and
others not focused at all. So if half of them are focused the
serious-non-serious balance may be 50-50. The non-serious workouts are,
essentially, “play.” You’re simply having fun by exercising with friends,
exploring new territory while riding or running, exercising in ways that are
very much unlike your sport (for example, a cyclist who runs or a triathlete who XC skis), or even taking a
day off just because you feel like it.
|
Period |
Typical Length (in |
Purpose (in common order of importance) |
% Serious |
% Non-serious |
|
Transition |
2-6 |
Rejuvenate |
0 |
100 |
|
Preparation |
2-6 |
Prepare to train |
60 |
40 |
|
Base 1 |
3-4 |
Skills, force, aerobic |
80 |
20 |
|
Base 2 |
3-4 |
Aerobic endurance, |
90 |
10 |
|
Base 3 |
3-4 |
Muscular endurance, |
100 |
0 |
|
Build 1 |
3-4 |
Race-specificity |
100 |
0 |
|
Build 2 |
3-4 |
Race-specificity |
100 |
0 |
|
Peak |
1-2 |
Maintain fitness, shed |
100 |
0 |
|
Race |
1 |
Shed fatigue, maintain |
100 |
0 |
Now you can be serious all
the time, if you want. I know many athletes who do that. I tend to be that way
myself once I get into the base period, so I understand. But if you are this
type you need to closely monitor your psychological status. Burnout is common
with such athletes. For whatever reason, I’ve met a lot of Ironman athletes who
are this way. These few triathletes don’t merely train seriously, they are serious all the time. They wake up
thinking about training. They eat thinking about training. They think about
training at work. They go to bed thinking about training. And I’m not just
picking on Ironman triathletes as I’ve known a couple of other athletes who are
this way who aren’t triathletes. Ironman seems to attract highly focused
people. And, again, that's okay. Just be sure to monitor yourself. It's easy to dig a deep trench if overly serious.
So, does having this table
mean you have to follow it? No, not at all. It’s just my thoughts on how to
train if you have set high performance goals for yourself. The key idea here is
that the higher your goal, the more serious you must be in regards to the training purpose column above. This becomes critical
in the last 12 weeks before the race. During this time you must be serious if
you have a high-performance goal. But if you feel the need to take a break from
serious training, even though it may be Build 2 and you’ve set very high goals,
then by all means just “play” for a while. You’ll race much better if you are
enthusiastic and highly motivated but not quite race fit than if you are the
other way around.
